Substantial education reform in urban public schools has been on a hamster wheel since the late 1980s, and the shortcomings are still evident. This assessment serves as an observation and not as a criticism. Providing greater autonomy to public schools in urban communities is critical to both strengthening valuable social-emotional skills and improving student achievement outcomes for all students — but especially minority learners.
Autonomous leadership at the school-site level is the antithesis of the one-size-fits-all modus operandi approach to addressing the academic disparities between students in urban neighborhoods and their peers in suburbia.
